Boston Market Beef Pot Roast – Reclaimed Meat with Wallpaper Paste and Vegetables

Back when I had a Boston Market restaurant near me, I used to enjoy their food quite a bit.  It was an alternative to typical fast food for lunch.  When I had the opportunity to try some of their frozen dinners, I looked forward to it.  Usually they are a bit on the expensive side, but one of the local supermarkets had them on sale 4 for $10.

The Boston Market Beef Pot Roast looked really good when looking at the box.  Gravy and Beef Pot Roast with Carrots, Celery, Green Beans, and Grilled Onions and a Side of Home-Style Mashed Potatoes.

Preparation was easy.  It’s just a matter of heating it in the microwave.  Since there is more food in a Boston Market frozen dinner than a typical frozen dinner, it takes a bit longer. 

I can say of all the frozen dinners I tried from Boston Market, this one disappointed me the most.  The beef was in cubes, and didn’t look like chunks of beef, but something formed in a mold.  I’m told this is because it is “reclaimed meat” rather than being actual beef like I make.  Reading the ingredients list, it’s easy to grasp that as there is cornstarch, soy and other ingredients which seem like fillers or ingredients used to bind something together. It tasted pretty good, though.  It was tender and only had a few spots where it felt chewy.  It wasn’t like when I make pot roast in a slow-cooker and it gets fall-apart tender, but it was still pretty good.

The vegetables are mixed right in with the beef and gravy.  It’s celery, carrots, and green beans.  The vegetables are tender without being mushy and tasted good.  The gravy had a good taste, not too strong that it tasted artificial and not too salty.

The potatoes are a disappointment, especially from Boston Market.  When I would buy food from their stores, I was always impressed by how good their mashed potatoes were.  These taste like typical mashed potatoes found in frozen dinners, possibly worse.  I took a taste of them plain just to verify that they tasted the same as the other Boston Market frozen dinners I tried.  Yup, still the same wallpaper paste.  I stirred the remaining gravy into it and that was a big improvement. 

Nutritionally, this isn’t too bad, especially for a 15 ounce dinner.  There are 390 calories in the entire dinner, with 150 of those calories coming from fat.  That works out to 17g of fat or 26% of the recommended daily value.  Of that, 5g are saturated fat or 27% of the recommended daily value.  Like most frozen dinners, when it comes to sodium this is bad.  There is 1110mg of sodium in the entire meal or 46% of the recommended daily value.  For those of us with high blood pressure, this is not a good choice on a regular basis at all.

While I didn’t find Boston Market Beef Pot Roast particularly bad tasting (with the exception of the potatoes), I really was disappointed.  The Boston Market I remember stood for quality and wouldn’t have marketed something that seems like it’s a step up from dog food.  I can’t say I would ever eat this again.

A Review of the Book Roller Coaster by David Bennett

One look at the beautiful cover photograph of Mantis, a stand-up roller coaster located at Cedar Point Park in Sandusky, Ohio, and I knew I had to have this book. I was so not disappointed. 

This is a coffee-table type book, but it is actually a whole lot more. Coaster enthusiasts should have this book for the great information as well as the amazing pictures. I cannot say enough about the photographs in this book. Each one made me want to drive to wherever that coaster is and ride it. I could be planning road trips well into the next century. 

There is so much more to this book than just pictures. Roller Coaster provides a tremendous amount of information not just about contemporary coasters, but it goes back through the history of the ride. It is believed they originated with ice slides in Russia as early as the 17th century. However, no one is certain exactly what spawned the enthusiasm for this ride. There were also wooden toboggan rides in Paris in the 18th century, as well as a gravity railroad in Pennsylvania in the 19th century. 

The first chapter touches on this origins debate. It contains a wide variety of sketches and drawings depicting these early coasters. I found that they aided greatly in imagining what these early "rides" were like. 

I found the depictions of the gravity railroad (used for hauling coal down from the mountain) to be very interesting as well. Could you imagine covering 18 miles of countryside after just a nudge to get started? The coal cars were hauled up the mountain first by mules and later on by steam engines, then controlled by a brakeman for 18 miles where they were offloaded. 

As they move into the latter half of the 19th century, photographs begin to come into play rather than drawings. The photographs of the early switchbacks are interesting, as well as the paintings and sketches from early advertisements or postcards. Looping coasters were in amusement parks as early as 1908! 

There is a lot of information about the development of Coney Island and its various amusement parks. This was part of the growth of amusement parks now that they were accessible to city-dwellers due to the trolley bus. All of the early photographs appear to have been perfectly restores and are absolutely incredible to see the contrast from almost 100 years ago. 

Chapter two talks about the roller coaster designers. In modern times, enthusiasts are used to hearing names like B & M, Vekoma, Schwarzkopf, Arrow Dynamics, and The Philadelphia Toboggan Company. They owe their heritage to men like John Miller, Frederick Church, Harry G. Traver, and Herbert P. Schmeck There are design specs of roller coasters in this chapter. Some of the coasters from this era still exist today. Most notably is the Cyclone at Coney Island, and Thunderboltat Kennywood Park which was originally called The Pippin. 

So much is made of safety concerns today, but fatalities were common on the coasters of years ago. Sometimes this drew more people to them - go figure. 

The second golden age of roller coasters has come around thanks to Walt Disney, according to the book. It credits him with being the savior of the amusement park industry. The book then takes us into modern times and the modern design of coasters; wood, steel, inverted, suspended, and hyper coasters are all talked about and shown with the same incredible photographs. Each one makes me want to ride that coaster! 

I also liked seeing the photographs of some of the coasters from overseas. Since the chance of my getting to ride all of them is slim to none, I enjoy flipping through the book trying to imagine what it would be like to ride on these. 

Chapter three talks about how a roller coaster works. This is a great chapter for people who can't bring themselves to ride coasters for fear of it flying off the track. There are drawings and specs showing the various safety devices, as well as the physics of coasters. It even talks about where to sit on the ride; the various pros and cons of both the front and back of a roller coaster train. 

The difference of wood and steel coasters is also discussed in this chapter, as well as the different terms used to describe the type of coaster. Out and back, twister, and racer are terms usually applied to wooden coasters while corkscrew, vertical looping, shuttle looping, boomerang shuttle looping, suspended, stand up, hyper, mine train, and wild mouse are all varieties of steel coasters. 

Chapter four goes into the greatest rides of today. Since this book was published in 1998, it is a bit dated since so many new coasters have been added at amusement parks since then. However, all of the coasters which are talked about are accompanied by the same incredible pictures which entice the reader/enthusiast. (We prefer not to be called "Coaster nuts" or "Coaster Freaks", thank you!) 

In particular, as I look at the photographs of a coaster called Nemesis at Alton Towers in Staffordshire, England, I know I have to go there someday. Quite a few of the coasters here I have already ridden. There is a certain beauty to these structures which this book manages to capture. Many of them seem to be works of art - especially the wooden structures. 

Chapter five talks about the amusement park industry. In it the author takes a look at a typical day in the life of three parks: Kennywood in West Mifflin, PA, Blackpool Pleasure Beach in England, and Alton Towers in England. This part does not deal specifically with coasters, but with the actual park operation. The author then turns to other prominent amusement parks: the Six Flags Theme Parks, Cedar Point, Buffalo Bill's Resort Casino, Elitch Gardens, King's Island, and Disney Theme Parks. He also devotes some discussion to theme parks in japan and the far East. 

Finally, we are given some statistics on theme parks showing attendance figures for parks in the U.S. and the world from 1989 and 1995. 

One of the last items in the book is a listing of roller coasters by state, followed by country. There is a key to ride symbols, so the reader is given a general overview of each coaster listed. This is followed by a compilation of roller coaster records as of 1998, a page-long dateline of the roller coaster, and the picture credits. A bibliography including picture credits, source material and useful reading precedes the index. 

If you like roller coasters and want a book with great photographs as well as a veritable treasure-trove of information, this book is for you! 

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Arsenal of Freedom

Yes, that is an actual conversation from this first season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. As the season is winding down, the episodes seem to be getting better. This is definitely one of the better ones. 

The Enterprise travels to the planet Minos in the Lorenz Cluster to find out what happened to the U.S.S. Drake. Captain Rodriguez was in command of that ship, and he happened to know Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) back in Starfleet Academy. 

What they discover is a planet devoid of intelligent life which was once habited by a race of arms merchants. An away team led by Riker beams down to the planet surface. Quickly they are assaulted by an unknown enemy. After having the conversation above with what is apparently a holographic image of the dead Captain Rodriguez, Riker is encased in a sort of force field presumably for transport to an interrogation center at a later time. 

With only Data (Brent Spiner) and Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) on the planet, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) beams down along with the Doctor Crusher (Gates McFadden) to try to free Riker and see if he is injured. Just as Data and Yar manage to free Riker, they are once again attacked. Trying to fool the attacker, the crew separates. It is at this point that Picard and Dr. Crusher fall down a hole into some sort of cave. 

Meanwhile, Geordi LaForge (Levar Burton), the blind helmsman of the Enterprisehas been left in command of the ship. They are also being attacked by an unknown enemy. There is a sub-plot here where the Chief Engineer feels he outranks Geordi and wants command to be turned over to him. 

This episode has good character development for Geordi, Picard and Crusher. While trapped in the unknown hole, Crusher begins to go into shock. To keep her conscious, Picard engages her in a series of conversations which subtly shows there is a deeper attachment between the two of them. 

With Geordi, we get to see that at times he is unsure of himself, and the confrontations with Chief Engineer Logan aren't helping. What isn't explored, however, is exactly what Logan's problem with Geordi is. Does he feel that because he is blind he should not be in command? Does he feel that he has more practical experience than Geordi? Does he outrank him? The source of the conflict between the two of them is never established and makes this part of the plot feel forced. It probably doesn't help at all that the actor portraying Logan is terrible in the role. 

The writing is better than some episodes, but not great, so I feel the actors deserve the credit for making this episode work. They seem to be finding their footing in regards to their characters. Jonathan Frakes especially seems to be defining Riker in more human terms rather than as a cartoonish Captain Kirk knock-off. There is also more action here than we have seen previously this season - and not the space-battle type either. Though it is not too suspenseful, it does fit well with the story and manages to entertain. 

In the end, the crew surmises what killed off life on the planet and what happened to the Drake: all of what they experience here is an elaborate demonstration of the newest armament system developed by the merchants. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to turn it off until Picard finds what seems to be an obvious solution. It's the sort of thing that leaves you feeling "Why didn't anyone else think of that?" 

Okidata OKIPAGE 10ex LED Printer: You Can Find Better Options for the Money

Since I have worked for a non-profit, the biggest factor when figuring out what to purchase is cost. So when one of our two laser printers quit about 18 months ago (the other went shortly thereafter), I browsed our office machine catalogs and found an inexpensive laser printer. 

The Okidata OKIPAGE 10ex LED Printer came in at just shy of $300. This was a good price, but what would it cost me per page? A toner cartridge retails for $28 and lasts for around 2,000 pages. The drum retails for about $175 and lasts about 20,000 pages. This means the average cost per page is about 2¢ - a great value! 

The problem comes when the toner or drum doesn't last quite as long as you'd planned. 

In the case of the Okidata OKIPAGE 10ex LED Printer, the problem is with the drum and paper jams. We ended up having frequent paper jams in the machine. After we'd had the printer about two months, we had one jam so bad that it scratched the drum. This meant we were getting lines and marks across all of our pages. 

It's a fluke - it can happen to anyone once, right? Well after about six months with a new drum, another bad paper jam caused that one to scratch. The drum that is currently in the machine has lasted without scratches, but the printer has been giving me the change drum message for quite some time now. I have basically ignored it, since I knew I was nowhere near the 20,000 pages that is promised and the printer is working well. Every now and then I get black blobs of toner in different spots on a page, but white-out is a lot cheaper than another new drum. 

The printer will also take what I consider to be a long time to generate a page. I have this problem with graphics as well as spreadsheets. It seems like I am waiting a very long time for the output after I have sent the document to the queue. It's not a memory issue - often I bring up the printer folder and watch the progress as the document loads. It just seems to take a great deal of time. It claims 10 pages per minute, but I believe that is counting the time after it has warmed up again. 

The printer boasts a 250-sheet paper tray, however I have found that if the tray is filled more than 3/4 full, the paper jams more frequently. The bypass tray works wonderfully and I have used this a lot for envelopes as well as feeding in pages for 2-sided printing or booklet printing. The largest size the paper tray can handle is 81/2x11 or 81/2x14 in the bypass tray. 

There is a small screen to indicate problems or other issues, as well as for using the various menu functions. I have not had to use this that much, but have found it relatively easy to follow the on-screen instructions. This is a great way to know exactly what is going on and is the difference between the 10ex model and the10e. The software provided allows you to choose to install on-screen instructions for step-by-step fault clearance and other problems as well. If you don't want that, you can also choose not to install it. 

The quality of print is crisp at 600x1200 DPI. The printer comes with a standard 2 meg of memory and is upgradeable to 36 meg. I have had no problems using it with Windows 95 & 98. Like most printers, you will have to download support software and drivers from the Okidata site - www.okidata.com - if you are using this printer with Windows XP. 

The printer is also very compact and easily fits on a desktop. Since the paper tray is located underneath the machine, that means that every time you have to add paper the tray slides out. I finally turned the printer so that the tray opening faced off the edge of my workstation. Too often, I would have to clean up my whole workstation just to add paper to the printer. 

The printer is not the worst I have ever seen. However, its problems make it a lesser value for its cost. There are many better quality laser printers out there for the $299 price tag. 

DVDPlanet.com is a Great Place to Buy blu-ray and DVDs!

I used to get the majority of my DVDs through Buy.com. Now, I have nothing against that site at all and am very pleased with it. But thanks to Ebates, I found a smaller site that has better prices! 

The website at DVDPlanet.com is very easy to navigate. This is probably because - unlike other big DVD stores - they only focus on DVDs. There is no electronics, books, computers or anything else to distract from the DVD selection. I found the search feature to work wonderfully. New Releases and Coming Soon are featured on the main menu, with a selection of genres on the left. There are links at the bottom of the main page to articles on www.thedigitalbits.com which contains a variety of movie reviews, rumors, art, and other interesting tidbits. 

Under DVD Deals there is a large selection of DVDs under $6. Also available are DVDs between $6 - $10, $10 - $15, and $15 - $20. This is a great way to build your DVD collection fairly inexpensively. 

What I like best about DVDPlanet.com is that their prices are at least 30% off of the retail price of DVDs. While I have come across other sites that are discounted from retail, I haven't come across any as cheap as here. For instance, my recent acquisition of Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season Two costs $94.49 at DVDPlanet.com. At Buy.com it costs $97.99 and at Amazon.com it costs $104.99. The DVD Marilyn Monroe Diamond Collection #2 is $59.99 at DVDPlanet.com and Amazon.com and $62.49 at Buy.com. The DVD of Gone With the Wind is $18.74 atDVDPlanet.com, $19.49 at Buy.com and $19.99 at Amazon.com. 

The shipping costs at DVDPlanet.com are competitive as well. Standard shipping of 1-2 discs is $2.50 plus .50 for each disc. Priority mail of 3 or more discs is the same. 2-day shipping by UPS is $6.00 plus $2.50 each disc. Next day is $10.00 plus $2.50 each disc. Amazon.com has cheaper shipping charges for the 2-day and Next-day, but I have never had a reason to have my DVDs shipped to me this way, so I always choose standard. I have always had my discs shipped standard and have noticed they seem to arrive a day or two later than the other popular DVD sites. I don't mind waiting the extra day or two for the money I save! Even if it's only $10, that's $10 more that's mine. 

There is an email list to subscribe to. Ever week I get a notice of what's being released. You can also get early notice of upcoming Criterion Collection titles, an Anime notice, as well as a notice about the adult selections. Also, for those in California, there is a DVD Planet Superstore in Westminster.